Part 2: Questions surround former police chief’s use of firearms, funds

Questions surround former police chief’s use of firearms, funds

An old Chevrolet truck passes the South Roxana American Legion Post 1167 on Sinclair Avenue. With the exception of a few businesses, the village of about 2,000 people is mostly residential.

John Badman/The Telegraph
A relatively new sign adorns the front of the South Roxana Village Hall where the Police Department and Village Clerk work side by side.

Questions surround former police chief’s use of firearms, funds

By Cory Davenport

cdavenport@civitasmedia.com

An old Chevrolet truck passes the South Roxana American Legion Post 1167 on Sinclair Avenue. With the exception of a few businesses, the village of about 2,000 people is mostly residential.

http://www.thetelegraph.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/web1_PartTwosecondary-2-2.jpgAn old Chevrolet truck passes the South Roxana American Legion Post 1167 on Sinclair Avenue. With the exception of a few businesses, the village of about 2,000 people is mostly residential.

John Badman/The Telegraph
A relatively new sign adorns the front of the South Roxana Village Hall where the Police Department and Village Clerk work side by side.

http://www.thetelegraph.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/web1_PartTwoFEATUREARTc2.jpgJohn Badman/The Telegraph
A relatively new sign adorns the front of the South Roxana Village Hall where the Police Department and Village Clerk work side by side.

SOUTH ROXANA — Alleged corruption in South Roxana didn’t stop at the village clerk’s office, as reported Wednesday in the first of a three-part investigative series by the Telegraph.

A review of previous investigations and other documents obtained by the Telegraph into illegal benefits received by previous South Roxana Village officials has revealed allegations of official misconduct against former South Roxana Police Chief and former Village Clerk Tina Carpenter’s husband, Dennis Carpenter, as well.

Dennis Carpenter retired from office on May 1, 2014. His replacement, current South Roxana Police Chief Bob Coles, was appointed to fill Carpenter’s vacancy on April 15, 2014. Four months later, Coles opened an investigation into Carpenter and his wife.

The allegations against Dennis Carpenter include personal use of guns from the South Roxana Police Department evidence locker and using Drug Asset Forfeiture money for personal gain. Coles said he was a witness to the incidents in question.

Shortly after opening the investigation, Coles passed it to Madison County State’s Attorney Tom Gibbons. Gibbons said Coles’s involvement in the incidents in question made the South Roxana Police Department unable to investigate the case.

“Chief Coles asked for our help conducting an independent investigation because he could not get any other agency to investigate,” Gibbons said in an email. “Chief Coles’s direct involvement in several of the incidents being investigated necessitated an independent investigation.”

Gibbons’s office investigated the allegations from last October until March 10 of this year, when Gibbons alerted the public to his own conflict of interest. That conflict of interest, per Coles, was the marriage of South Roxana Village Attorney Debra Meadows to Madison County State’s Attorney Head of Civil Division John McGuire. Both Tina and Dennis Carpenter declined comment for this story.

Guns for personal use

In his report on the investigation, Coles admitted to witnessing Dennis Carpenter have the lock cut from the police department’s evidence locker after requesting the South Roxana Fire Department bring bolt cutters to break the lock. Carpenter allegedly took three guns from the locker for his own use outside of his duties as chief.

“Since he did not possess a key, he called the former Fire Chief Ed Allsman to send a firefighter over to the police department to cut the bolt to the gun locker so he could remove some confiscated guns to go hunting with,” Coles said in his report. “After watching the firefighter, (current South Roxana assistant fire chief) Chris Brown, cut the lock, I left the police department because I did not want to be involved with the situation.”

South Roxana police officer Brian E. Doyle participated in the department’s investigation, and on Sept. 9, 2014, he interviewed Brown regarding the incident. Brown told Doyle he recalled the incident, saying Allsman requested he go to the South Roxana Police Department with bolt cutters to “remove a padlock from a locker.”

“Brown was instructed by Allsman to cut the lock but was not given a reason nor did Brown know the contents of the locker in question,” Doyle said in his report.

Doyle further stated Brown could not provide an exact date for that incident, but Doyle said he remembered seeing the cut padlock hanging from the hasp on the gun locker in the evidence holding area.

“The padlock was cut sometime in June-August 2003, until I took over evidence duties in the fall of 2003,” Doyle said.

According to the South Roxana Police Department report, two of three guns allegedly removed from the evidence locker were later returned to the department by Carpenter. The other, a Heckler and Koch .380 pistol, Carpenter took with him when he retired, according to Coles’s report.

On April 21, 2014, Coles said he saw Doyle holding a large caliber revolver in the department. Doyle told Coles it was given to him by Dennis Carpenter to return to the evidence locker.

“Sgt. Doyle told me Chief Carpenter had to have taken the gun out of evidence over 10 years ago before the locks were changed,” Coles said in his report.

Dennis Carpenter was asked about removing guns from the evidence locker by Special Investigators Kevin J. Hendricks and Don Petrillo on Oct. 18, 2014, in the presence of the Carpenters’ attorney, Steve Selby, in the conference room of the Madison County State’s Attorney’s office.

“I asked Dennis (Carpenter) about cutting the lock of the gun evidence locker and removing a gun for personal use,” Hendricks said in his report. “He stated he did indeed remove the gun in 2003. He further stated the gun was used and was returned. I then asked about the Heckler and Koch .380 pistol that Chief Coles said he was in possession of at this time. Dennis (Carpenter) does have this weapon, he tried to return it to Chief Coles and stated Coles refused. Dennis (Carpenter) volunteered to return the weapon to me.”

Coles said Dennis Carpenter did not try to return the weapon to the South Roxana Police Department. He also told Hendricks and Petrillo that Dennis Carpenter would tell them he tried to return the gun to the South Roxana Police Department prior to Dennis Carpenter speaking with investigators, according to Hendricks’s report.

The Heckler and Koch .380 pistol was brought to the Madison County State’s Attorney’s Office by Selby on Oct. 20, 2014, according to Hendricks’s report. The pistol was secured in a small gun locker in the Madison County State’s Attorney’s Office, where it remains.

Drug Asset Forfeiture allegations

Improper collection and use of benefits may have extended further.

On Feb. 11, 2011, the Village of South Roxana used $7,201.48 to purchase assault rifles from Cabela’s in Missouri. The money used came from the village’s Drug Asset Forfeiture fund.

Coles said he witnessed Dennis Carpenter use his personal Cabela’s rewards card with the cashier. According to Coles, Dennis Carpenter was able to use the rewards money from that purchase to purchase a new seat for his fishing boat. Coles said Dennis Carpenter told the same story to Doyle.

When asked about that purchase by investigators, Dennis Carpenter admitted he did receive the rewards points but said it was only after he asked about putting the points toward the village, according to Hendricks’s report.

“Dennis (Carpenter) said at the time of the purchase, he asked if South Roxana was eligible for rewards points,” Hendricks said in his report. “The (Cabela’s) clerk told him that entities were not eligible, however, that he could give the points to any individual and asked Dennis (Carpenter) if he would like them.”

Coles, a lieutenant with the department at the time of the incident, witnessed the transaction. Coles said the idea to transfer the points to Dennis Carpenter’s rewards card Carpenter’s, not the Cabela’s cashier’s. According to Coles, Dennis Carpenter opted to transfer the rewards points to himself without prompting.

The Telegraph reached out to Cabela’s via email regarding their store policy involving regarding rewards points and public entities. That email was forwarded to their corporate office and was never answered.

There is still more to this investigation, however. According to Coles, Gibbons is hindering this investigation on purpose, potentially due to political interests. Conversely, through letters to the Village of South Roxana and to the Telegraph, Gibbons has expressed his concern of Coles not giving his office enough information to properly conduct the investigation.

Coming Friday: The Telegraph examines the role of the Madison County State’s Attorney’s’s Office in the investigation of corruption allegations in South Roxana.

Reporter Cory Davenport can be reached at (618) 208-6447 or on Twitter @CoryTelegraphs.

Reporter Cory Davenport can be reached at (618) 208-6447 or on Twitter @CoryTelegraphs.